Publications

Directional neutron detectors for use with 14 MeV neutrons :fiber scintillation methods for directional neutron detection

Mascarenhas, Nicholas M.; Peel, Justin P.; Mengesha, Wondwosen M.; Sunnarborg, Duane A.

Current Joint Test Assembly (JTA) neutron monitors rely on knock-on proton type detectors that are susceptible to X-rays and low energy gamma rays. We investigated two novel plastic scintillating fiber directional neutron detector prototypes. One prototype used a fiber selected such that the fiber width was less than 2.1mm which is the range of a proton in plastic. The difference in the distribution of recoil proton energy deposited in the fiber was used to determine the incident neutron direction. The second prototype measured both the recoil proton energy and direction. The neutron direction was determined from the kinematics of single neutron-proton scatters. This report describes the development and performance of these detectors.